


Drop a heart, break a name

by emotionalsupportfastcars



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: 2021 F1 Season, Ferrari - Freeform, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Instagram, Introspection, M/M, Music, Romantic Comedy, Social Media, There will be shenanigans, ciao bello, group chats
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-16 16:02:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29085072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emotionalsupportfastcars/pseuds/emotionalsupportfastcars
Summary: “Ferrari fwiends,” mutters Lando, stomping off to bed in a huff. “Ferrari boyfwiends, more like.”The 2021 season hasn’t even started, but Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr are already flirting outrageously.Lando Norris is extremely unimpressed and more than a little jealous.
Relationships: Alexander Albon & Lando Norris & George Russell, Charles Leclerc & Carlos Sainz Jr, Lando Norris & Daniel Ricciardo, Lando Norris/Carlos Sainz Jr, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Comments: 42
Kudos: 114





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> For context, Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz Jr were McLaren teammates for both 2019 and 2020, and had a very well-documented bromance.
> 
> In 2021, Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo are teammates. Carlos moved to Ferrari, where he is now teammates with Charles Leclerc, who has been at Ferrari since 2019.

Lando’s half-asleep when his phone pings.

He blindly rolls over and scrabbles around to switch on the bedside lamp before unlocking his phone.

> carlossainz55 added to their story

Lando yawns and looks for the time with bleary eyes. It’s just past 12am here in Dubai, which means that it’s still relatively early over in Italy. 

This week, Carlos, Charles, and a bunch of the Ferrari Driver Academy guys are doing private tests in Ferrari’s 2018 car. And while Lando still resents Ferrari for enticing Carlos away from McLaren, he’s definitely curious about how the longest-running Formula 1 team does things.

Non-disclosure agreements mean that there are a lot of things that Carlos can’t tell Lando. However, over the past few weeks, Carlos has sent Lando some photos of Ferrari’s factory and mentioned some non-confidential things, like the type of food they serve in the cafeteria.

Lando’s really looking forward to the next time they talk. He wants to hear all about Carlos driving the SF71H.

As far as Lando remembers, Carlos is only testing tomorrow. Or later today, rather, since it’s already Wednesday here in Dubai.

Whatever.

Earlier, Carlos texted Lando something about going out to do some pre-season work and posted some Insta stories of himself in Ferrari gear.

Lando taps the notification, expecting another generic Carlos-in-Ferrari-gear photo. Instead, what he gets is a close-up photo of Charles Leclerc wearing extremely round sunglasses.

Lando instinctively pulls a face and presses his thumb on the screen, preventing the photo from disappearing after several seconds.

Okay. Okay.

Carlos and Charles are teammates now. Besides, once McLaren brings in both its drivers to do pre-season prep, Lando himself will probably start posting Insta stories of his new teammate. Daniel Ricciardo.

They might not be best mates, but Lando and Daniel have talked before and they do get along. And Carlos and Charles have always gotten along, so this is... normal.

Lando lets his eyes fall shut. Instead of judging himself or mentally berating himself for his feelings, he acknowledges the twinge of jealousy in his chest and lets himself feel the emotion. Then, he lets that emotion float on.

A technique he learnt from his mind coach.

Calm and composed once again, Lando's about to lift his thumb from his phone screen when he notices that Carlos has written some text below that photo of Charles.

’Ciao bello,’ says the caption, and every single thing Lando has ever learnt about mindfulness flies out the window.

Ciao bello??? Isn’t that ‘hello beautiful’ or something?

Lando frantically types ‘ciao bello' into Google Translate. He's fairly sure he knows what it means thanks to him trying to chat someone up the last time he was in Italy. However, just to be safe, he had better double-check things.

Google Translate informs him that ‘ciao bello’ means ‘hello beautiful.’

Lando tries to rationalise it as “it’s just an Italian phrase, it doesn’t actually sound as flirty as it does in English.”

He does more research by searching for 'ciao bello meaning in english.'

Okay. According to the search results, ‘ciao bello’ can be said in both a platonic manner and a flirtatious way. 

Annoyingly enough, some of Lando’s search results are more firmly in the ‘this is flirtatious’ camp. The search results include articles with titles such as ‘best phrases to flirt in Italian’ and ‘how to flirt with an Italian man.’

Lando tells himself to stop extrapolating something out of nothing. As with many things, it seems that ‘ciao bello’ is all about context. And in the case of Carlos and Charles, it’s certainly a platonic sort of thing.

Lando puts away his phone, turns off the light, and goes to sleep.

  


* * *

  


The next day, Lando spends most of his day in the gym. Pre-season training and all that. By the time he's free, it’s evening.

As usual, he goes to Instagram and clicks through his feed’s stories. Nothing out of the ordinary there. Food, games, and motorsports. The usual

And then — the photo of Charles reappears. Except — this one is from Charles’ Insta.

Charles has reposted Carlos’ Insta story of him, accompanied by a bunch of laughing emojis and some Italian that Lando doesn’t completely understand.

> 😂😂😂😂 Bello proprio no su questa bellissima foto

Lando screenshots Charles’ Instastory and flips open his laptop, carefully retyping the words into Google Translate.

> Not really nice on this beautiful photo 

Lando stares at the translation for a good few minutes. It doesn't make any sense.

He opens the group chat that has kept him sane for the past two years and sends two photos. His screenshot of Charles’ Instastory and a photo of his laptop screen opened to that Google Translate tab.

> **2019 rookies**  
>  Lando: What does this mean???

One hour later, no one has replied.

Lando frowns. He’s not too sure what George is up to these days. Thanks to the albon_pets Insta, though, he knows that Alex is definitely at home in Monaco.

Lando crosses his fingers and calls Alex. A few moments later, Alex’s cheery voice comes out of Lando’s phone.

“Lando! How's Dubai?”

“Are you free?”

“Yeah — what’s up?”

“Do you know enough Italian to translate the pic I sent?”

“What pic?”

“Our group chat with George.”

“Ahhhh I haven’t seen it. Give me a moment.”

Lando hears some movement from Alex’s side.

“Hm. I don't really know what this means,” admits Alex, in a rueful tone. “‘Bello’ and ‘bellissima’ mean beautiful, I think, and ’foto’ is pretty self-explanatory.”

A pause.

“Have you tried asking Charles?” asks Alex. “Also, I think Carlos' Italian is decent?”

“Don’t want to.”

Lando hears Alex sigh.

“Well, I’ve got a couple of friends who speak Italian,” says Alex. “Let me send the Google Translate pic to them and see what they say. I'll text you back once I get a reply. Give me some time, ok?”

Lando lovesss Alex.

“You’re the best,” says Lando. “Thanks, Alex!”

"No problem. Text you soon."

Lando opens Reddit and loses himself in various comment threads. Then, a notification pops up.

> **2019 rookies**  
>  Alex: Ok one of my friends replied  
>  Alex: She laughed and said Google Translate is terrible  
>  Alex: She’s Italian, so this is definitely accurate  
>  Alex: Not exactly handsome on this very beautiful picture

Once again, Lando stares at the translation for a few minutes. 

The translation might come from an actual human, but it still doesn’t make sense.

> **2019 rookies**  
>  Lando: So he called the picture beautiful... but he called himself as not exactly handsome??? 😕  
>  Alex: I suppose Charles wanted to say that the picture is very beautiful but that Charles himself doesn’t look handsome  
>  Alex: Probably didn't want to offend the photographer by accident  
>  Lando: Ah so he's praising the photo but criticising how he looks  
>  Alex: Sounds like it, yeah  
>  Lando: I guess it kinda makes sense  
>  Lando: Thanks, Alex  
>  Alex: You're welcome

Lando goes back to Instagram and checks both Carlos and Charles’ profiles again to view their Insta stories and do some mental math. A few moments later, he’s concluded that Carlos’ initial story and Charles’ reply were posted about fifteen hours apart.

Hm.

Carlos and Charles are not exactly _flirting_. But Lando still sulks a little because... it used to be _Lando_ that Carlos posted about on Instagram, and it used to be Lando who promptly reposted Carlos’ Insta stories with his own witty captions.

Or it would be the reverse - Lando posts about Carlos, and Carlos reposts Lando’s posts.

How quickly things change.

  


* * *

  


Since Lando’s got nothing to do, he lounges around his hotel room balcony after dinner and scrolls through Instagram. 

Once again, he ends up on both Carlos and Charles’ Insta profiles. He scrolls through the numerous photos that both drivers are tagged in, trying to discover whether either of them have been spotted interacting with each other over the past week.

Lando spies a screenshot of him and Carlos from that infamous “the helicopter’s got no balls video” and clicks on it.

It’s a video.

As the video begins playing, Lando grins. Good times.

Unfortunately, he happens to glance at the poster’s username. The username looks like a misspelling of either Charles or Carlos, along with some numbers.

Lando squints until he swears he’s going cross-eyed. He spends far too long trying to comprehend why a fan account would deliberately misspell the name of a driver they're presumably a fan of... until he realises that the name is a portmanteau of Charles and Carlos. Just like how Carlando is a portmanteau of Carlos and Lando. 

Charlos.

Is that what the fans are calling the Carlos-Charles teammate relationship?

Lando clicks out of that post and once again starts poking through his recommended feed.

Annoyingly enough, thanks to all Lando's endless stalking of both Carlos and Charles, Instagram has decided that Lando should be shown nothing but pictures of Carlos and Charles. His recommended feed is now full of both drivers’ faces.

Out of curiosity, Lando clicks a post that's just a fan account’s screenshot of Charles’ Insta story. He scrolls through the comments.

> They’re so cute! What do we call them? Charlos? Charles squared?  
>  Who wouldn’t say ciao bello to a photo of Charles? 🔥  
>  Carlos squared I love it!  
>  The Charleses ❤️  
>  Forza Ferrari!  
>  They’re already becoming good friends!!!  
>  Ciao bello, Carlos is right!  
>  Charlos!!! 👀  
>  Charlito ❤️❤️❤️

Lando sulks and closes Instagram.

He thinks of that day last season when he and Carlos were walking around the track. At one point, Carlos spotted some Ferrari staff and ran ahead to them, leaving Lando alone.

“Oh, Ferrari fwiends,” said Lando, in a high voice, and repeated it a few times for good measure.

Since he wasn’t sure whether Carlos was talking confidential things with Ferrari, Lando slowed down until he saw Ferrari's staff walk away from Carlos, who promptly turned back to look for him.

Carlos’ right arm was stretched towards him. And when he reached Carlos, Carlos slung that arm around his shoulders.

“Don’t be jealous. I’ll talk to you next year,” said Carlos, giving him a quick pat.

“Oh, Ferrari fwiends,” repeated Lando, in that same high voice.

“No, don’t do that,” said Carlos, in a soothing voice.

“Ferrari friends. Aww.”

Lando wasn’t even sure why he kept harping on it. All Carlos was doing was saying hi to his future colleagues.

“I didn’t know you would get jealous,” said Carlos, now sounding slightly bewildered.

Lando didn’t answer.

Luckily, Carlos didn't push the point and began talking about the upcoming race. Gradually, the pit in Lando’s stomach — the one that reappeared every now and then ever since Carlos’ Ferrari move became public — disappeared. 

That was then.

But now...

Now, Lando is alone in Dubai, with no Carlos nearby to soothe him and reassure him and make him smile.

“Ferrari fwiends,” mutters Lando, stomping off to bed in a huff. “Ferrari boyfwiends, more like.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **References**  
>  \- ferrari fwiends is from mclaren's unboxed. sakhir gp.  
> \- IRL Lando Norris works with a mind coach and wrote about it. Search for ‘can we just talk’ on McLaren’s site. I'm glad it's more acceptable to talk about mental health in F1. Last season, McLaren collaborated with the mental health charity ‘Mind’.  
> \- The “helicopter’s got no balls” video is on YouTube. It's ~10 minutes of Carlos teaching Lando Spanish. Enjoy.  
> \- I’ve had this idea for _months_ and planned to write this halfway through the 2021 season but ‘ciao bello’ happened, so here we are. Thanks to tumblr user someone-worth-racing-for for posting the screenshots, which I [reblogged](https://whatdidwejustdo.tumblr.com/post/641746684111699968).
> 
>  **Thanks**  
>  \- to scarletred for translating the Italian. The Google Translate text of the original Italian is literally what I got off the actual Google Translate site, so thank goodness for scarlet because like Lando, I was extremely confused.  
> \- to iwastemytimereading, sufferingcereal, laeana, and scarletred for talking about this with me  
> \- to F, who laughed with me when i first texted over this idea and the 'ferrari boyfwiends' line. back when the original ‘Ferrari fwiends’ video came out


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Last chapter**  
>  26-27 January 2021. Lando is in Dubai for his pre-season training camp when he discovers Carlos and Charles' ‘ciao bello’ Instagram stories.
> 
> * * *
> 
> From this chapter onwards, I'll add a quick summary of 'what happened last chapter' in the chapter notes. Hopefully, this helps you, the reader, to remember what happened between chapter updates. If these summaries help you, please let me know. Happy to add more detail to the summaries if you want.
> 
> Thanks to feelsdemandtobefelt13's comment for making me think of this idea.

A few days later, Lando flies back home to start doing pre-season prep with McLaren.

Today, he’s at the McLaren Technology Center, MTC for short. It's a giant complex with two giant buildings. 

This is McLaren’s headquarters, and everything happens here. Manufacturing McLaren cars to sell to the general public, manufacturing the Formula 1 car that Lando drives, researching how to make better cars of all types…

Lando has spent so many years with McLaren, both as a driver in its academy and as its Formula 1 driver. Thanks to that, the MTC is now his second home.

Henrik, who’s basically McLaren’s videographer and photographer-in-chief, has just filmed him meeting Zak at the lobby. Zak Brown is McLaren’s team principal.

It was a short segment, and Lando actually really enjoyed filming it.

When Henrik cued him up, saying that Zak was walking towards him, Lando grinned at the camera, patted his chest, and declared “it’s my boy Zak!” — before bursting into laughter and happily waiting for Zak to wander up to him so that they could make some small talk and point out some of the McLaren cars parked around MTC.

“Footage looks good,” says Henrik, after several minutes, during which Lando amused himself by making small talk with Zak and the other McLaren staff who came up to say hi. “Nice one. Now let’s go take some photos.”

"Okay" replies Lando. He waves goodbye to the group he was talking to.

As Lando trails after Henrik, he thinks of the last two F1 pre-seasons that he’s had.

His first F1 season was in 2019 and he was a rookie, nervous and anxious — bordering on terrified, really — about whether he had what it took to compete with drivers who had tons more experience. Especially since his future teammate, Carlos Sainz Jr, already had multiple years of experience in Formula 1 and had already driven for multiple teams.

He remembers escaping to an empty room for a moment of privacy, during which he frantically texted George and Alex, who were also wrestling with similar emotions.

After all, George's future Williams teammate was Robert Kubica - who was making a comeback after his accident years ago. At one point, Kubica had even led the overall championship standings. Talk about intimidating.

Meanwhile, Alex was about to drive in Formula E when Red Bull signed him at the last minute because Daniel Ricciardo left Red Bull for Renault, and the Red Bull Academy had no drivers who were experienced enough to make the step up to Formula 1. Alex's future Toro Rosso teammate was Daniil Kvyat — another driver with many years of Formula 1 experience.

So Lando, George, and Alex all freaked out together in their group chat. And over the next few days, they eventually calmed down together.

Having friends who could relate really helped.

Lando's second F1 season was last year — 2020. And he now had the dual confidence boost of both having achieved a decent rookie season in Formula 1 and knowing that his teammate, Carlos, thought highly of his skills. They had even bonded to the point of being friends.

The sort of friends who texted each other about non-work stuff, encouraged each other, and hung out together outside races for no other reason than to spend time with each other. That sort of friendship.

Lando walks over to the spot that Henrik’s pointing at, squinting his eyes a little against the sunlight that’s filtering in through the nearby windows.

Henrik nods. “Nice. Now tilt your head down a little, stare at the floor, and look pensive.”

Lando has no fucking idea how to look pensive.

Heck, he doesn't know how to pose, really. That's George’s thing. Carlos’, maybe. And certainly Daniel’s.

What Lando knows how to do is to laugh and banter with people. He also knows how to make a lot of noise.

Still, Lando tries his best to look pensive. While he definitely doesn’t get it right the first time, Henrik doesn't give up and instead experiments with giving him different instructions. Eventually, Henrik nods, satisfied.

Fortunately, after that, all Henrik wants to do is to take a bunch of shots where Lando’s walking down corridors and laughing at the camera.

This, Lando can do.

And finally, Henrik sends Lando off to do actual car stuff with the engineers.

“I might film some of that,” says Henrik. ”Don’t worry. I’ll cut out any confidential or unwanted footage.”

It’s Henrik’s indirect way of saying that since this isn't a livestream, the video can be edited before its posted. Which means that it’s okay if Lando accidentally swears.

Lando doesn’t mind being filmed. It’s all part of the job, such is life. However, since he’s rubbish at acting or posing, he definitely prefers it when Henrik films or photographs him while he’s busy doing something else.

Henrik regularly films for a video series called ‘McLaren Unboxed.’ 

There’s definitely at least one Unboxed video for each race week. However, sometimes, Henrik will release additional videos. 

Overall, Unboxed’s content is a mixed bag. Race weekend stuff, behind-the-scenes stuff, promotional stuff, just-for-fun stuff... it all depends on what Henrik is in the mood for. 

From what Lando has seen and heard, the fans really love Unboxed content, which is nice.

“Do you need me later for Unboxed stuff?” he asks.

“Not this week,” replies Henrik. “Daniel’s coming in. This season's first Unboxed video is going to focus on his first time at MTC. Meeting the staff, getting a tour of the place, and hopefully getting a decent seat fit. That sort of thing.”

Lando nods. Makes sense. 

“Okay. See you later.”

As Lando walks off towards the engineering area, he thinks of all the times Henrik filmed him and Carlos for Unboxed videos. 

The filming did get tiring sometimes, especially on more stressful race weekends when all Lando wanted was a bit of peace and quiet. However, during less stressful weekends, filming Unboxed stuff didn’t feel like work. Instead, filming it just felt like “here are a couple of guidelines for you and Carlos, now hang out together and have some fun.”

Lando turns a corner. He’s now walking past a wall that has photos of McLaren drivers both past and present. 

There’s a blank space marked out with some tape, and there’s a note stuck to that part of the wall.

‘Daniel Ricciardo,’ says the note.

Presumably, once Henrik’s gotten decent pics of Daniel in McLaren gear, Daniel’s photo will be up on the wall.

Lando looks wistfully at the note. It’s a stark reminder of the fact that he won’t see Carlos at the MTC again.

  


* * *

  


Exactly one week after Carlos posted that 'ciao bello' Instagram story of Charles, Carlos posts… Another Instagram story of Charles.

Carlos and Charles are in different Ferrari sports cars. From the looks of it, they’re getting ready to drive around some track. Naturally, Carlos is filming everything and anything and posting it on Instagram.

‘Everything and anything’ includes Charles, apparently.

It seems that while Ferrari’s drivers are already allowed to drive Ferraris for promotional videos, Lando hasn’t been allowed to do anything more with a McLaren sports car than to wander over to one, sit in it, and compliment it.

Anything that gives Lando an excuse to hang out around cars is fun, of course. But nothing compares to the feeling of driving a Formula 1 car. And when it’s neither race nor test weekends, driving a sports car is the closest that he can get to driving a Formula 1 car.

He tries to distract himself with some random computer game. Unfortunately, the game is boring enough that his thoughts start wandering.

Even more unfortunately, his thoughts end up bringing him back to late 2018, when his F2 season had just ended and he was staring down the reality of becoming an F1 driver in 2019. The time when his nervousness and anxiety about ‘will I be good enough to drive a McLaren’ started sneaking in.

Carlos is a good driver, of course, but Daniel did outscore Sebastian during the one season that they were Red Bull teammates.

Hopefully, Lando can keep up with Daniel and learn a thing or two from him.

  


* * *

  


A few hours later, Lando has to admit to himself that all these chaotic feelings aren’t doing him any good.

He can’t run away from the fact that Daniel’s his teammate for next season, but he _can_ stop getting surprised by random social media content that doesn’t make him feel good.

So, for his own sanity, Lando makes an executive decision. 

No more checking Carlos or Charles' Insta stories until he’s is mentally ready for the possibility of either of them showing up on the other person's stories.

And Lando is only allowed to check their Insta stories once a day.

Hopefully, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the extent of Carlos and Charles’ social media interactions.

Okay. Fine. That’s not realistic, especially once the season starts. They'll be posting about each other on race weekends.

Well, he’ll just have to mute their Insta stories and manually check their profiles once a day.

Decision made, Lando goes to both of their Insta profiles and clicks ‘mute stories’ so that their stories won’t appear on his Insta stories feed. He double-checks that he hasn’t followed Ferrari’s Instagram by accident.

Job done, he checks his watch.

Time for some Netflix.

Then, bed.

  


* * *

  


It is a good decision. Lando’s Instagram no longer accosts him with random Charlos interactions.

Lando hates that he’s already mentally referring to them as ‘Charlos.’

Even if that word is a lot easier to think about than Carlos-Charles or Carlos-and-Charles. Fewer syllables and all that.

His decision works swimmingly for all of one day. 

Because, the next day, when Lando’s once again scrolling through his feed before going to sleep, he’s greeted with a video of Carlos.

A video that Lando remembers seeing on Charles’ Insta story. Which means that Carlos is reposting Charles’ videos of him on his Insta page.

Carlos posted on his Insta page, where it’ll stay for all eternity. Not on his Insta story, where it’ll disappear after twenty-four hours.

Lando sighs and tries not to wish for impossible things. He’ll just have to get used to... this. Unfortunately.

His uneasy truce with his emotions lasts for as long as it takes him to scroll down his feed, because it’s _then_ that he sees the video’s caption.

> 😂 Caption contest for a signed cap!  
>  🎥 @charles_leclerc

Carlos is using a video that _Charles_ took of him for a fan competition?

Lando tries to remember whether Carlos has ever done a similar thing with him. After all, over the past two years, Lando has taken dozens of photos and videos of Carlos.

He frowns. 

Carlos has posted some photos — perhaps some videos as well? — that Lando has taken of him on both Instagram posts and Insta stories, yes, but... has Carlos ever used a video that Lando took of him for a fan competition, in which Carlos will give away some signed merchandise to the person whose caption Carlos likes the most?

Lando racks his brain, but he can't think of a single time.

Is he supposed to be okay with the fact that Carlos never did this sort of thing with Lando, his teammate of _two years_ , but yet, Carlos is doing this sort of thing with _Charles_ , his teammate of not even two months?

Heck — the season hasn't even started. It's still preseason, for fuck's sake.

And while Lando counts Charles as a friend and has fond memories of them playing all sorts of online games together during lockdown last year, that certainly doesn't mean he approves of Charles dating Carlos.

Lando takes one last annoyed look at that video of Carlos.

Upon closer inspection, he suddenly realises that the black jacket Carlos is wearing is made out of leather.

Is Carlos really wearing a black leather jacket to drive around Italy in fancy Ferraris with _Charles Leclerc_ while Lando is stuck here all alone in Woking, UK???

Lando screeches.

How _dare_ they.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **References**  
>  \- Lando looking [pensive](https://whatdidwejustdo.tumblr.com/post/643286325502640128/thank-you-henrik-or-whoever-took-this-because-damn)  
> \- Lando saying ["It's my boy Zak!"](https://whatdidwejustdo.tumblr.com/post/643284872098643968)  
> \- Carlos' caption contest for a signed cap is on his Instagram. Early February 2021.  
> \- Carlos' [Insta story of Charles](https://whatdidwejustdo.tumblr.com/post/643285998796668928)
> 
>  **Thanks**  
>  Thank you so much for all your comments, kudos, and messages. Knowing that other people are interested in this story makes me so happy and encouraged!
> 
> Since a lot of this is based on real-life content, I can't promise a regular update schedule. It all depends on what goes on in real life. There will probably be some side pairings and side characters showing up later in the fic, as shown by the 'Other Relationships/Characters to be added' tags. I will update the tags once these pairings and characters appear.
> 
> What I _can_ promise you is that I've already plotted the ending, and that Lando and Carlos will get their happy ending.
> 
> Thanks for understanding, and let's enjoy the upcoming 2021 season together!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Last chapter**  
>  28 Jan - 3rd Feb 2021  
> Lando flies back to England, films some stuff at McLaren Technology Centre, and thinks about his past two F1 pre-seasons. Carlos and Charles continues to post about each other on Instagram. Lando tries to control his the amount of social media he consumes about them, but ends up sulking about Carlos and Charles driving around Italy in Ferraris while he is alone in England.
> 
>  **Relationship Tags**  
>  Updated the fic with the ‘Daniel & Lando’ platonic relationship tag. Because of course, Lando will spend time with his new teammate.

Lando manages to stick to his plan of only checking Carlos and Charles’ Insta stories once a day. Having said that, he still finds it hard to resist the temptation to continue searching up stuff after he’s manually checked their Insta stories.

So yes, Lando has literally sat on his hands to prevent himself from insta-stalking Carlos and Charles all over the bloody Internet. Because that Instagram stuff where Carlos wore a black leather jacket just to drive around Italy in fancy Ferraris with Charles? Lando is _still_ not over it.

He needs a _distraction_.

Luckily, after just two days of Lando battling to stay disciplined, he gets a text from Charlotte.

Charlotte is McLaren’s communications manager. She’s bouncy and upbeat, goes to all the races, and is definitely the main reason that McLaren is now the undisputed queen of F1 social media.

> Charlotte: Hey Lando, how’re you doing?  
>  Charlotte: Next week, you and Daniel are scheduled to film for McLaren’s car reveal  
>  Charlotte: Here’s the interesting part  
>  Charlotte: It’s in a music studio

Oh? That _does_ sound interesting. It also sounds distraction-worthy.

Lando doesn’t know what goes on in a music studio. However, one of the perks of his job is that he gets to do some really cool things just because marketing needs content for publicity. Like that time he and Carlos went skydiving in some indoor air tunnel. 

Although, sometimes, he has to do things that he _hates_. Like that time he had to touch something in a box and guess what it was for some McLaren video. One of the items was... a raw fish. 

A raw fish. When Lando hates fish in any shape or form. 

The thing is, some McLaren videos are for sponsor stuff, such as the Estrella Galicia quizzes that Lando did with Carlos and their trainers. So if sponsors were the reason that Lando had to touch a raw fish, he would try to shut up about his opinions about fish because you know, sponsors. Money. 

But that raw fish was for a McLaren Unboxed video that didn’t involve any sponsors. It was just McLaren generating some video content for the fans. Which meant that the only reason Lando had to touch a raw fish was because someone at McLaren decided it would be a good idea. And Lando’s hatred of anything fish-related is well-known.

Lando frowns. Henrik, McLaren’s videographer and photographer-in-chief, is usually the one who decides Unboxed’s content. Does that mean it was _Henrik’s_ idea to make Lando touch a raw fish for the lulz?

Lando pouts for a while before he remembers that he should probably reply to Charlotte.

> Lando: Doing well, thanks  
>  Lando: How are you doing?  
>  Lando: Music studio sounds fun 👀  
>  Lando: Are we gonna record some stuff?  
>  Charlotte: Doing well too, thanks!  
>  Charlotte: Yes! You’ll be recording some music, and we’ll include it in the car launch. 

Lando did _not_ expect that.

> Lando: Really?  
>  Charlotte: 💯  
>  Charlotte: We can’t wait to hear what you’ve got!  
>  Lando: !!! 

Lando’s starting to get excited. But… argh. If this is for the car launch, he definitely can’t spam George or Alex about it.

Confidentiality clauses _suck_.

  


* * *

  


Fortunately, later that day, he gets a text from Daniel.

> Daniel: You and me — future rockstars? 

Lando grins. A few days ago, he and Daniel finally met as teammates for the first time. While Daniel is no substitute for Carlos, he’s friendly and easy to talk to, and that’s always a good thing.

> Lando: I can’t sing to save my life, so let’s hope I don’t need to sing  
>  Daniel: Sing in the shower  
>  Daniel: Practice makes perfect  
>  Lando: 😂😂😂 

  


* * *

  


A few days later, Lando’s walking down a street with Daniel. They’re headed to Melody Makers’ music studio, where they’ll be recording some music for McLaren’s upcoming car launch.

Right now, they’re speculating about the McLaren and the studio have planned for them.

“Whatever it is, I hope I won’t mess up too badly,” says Daniel. “I’ve never been to a professional music studio.”

”Well, if make a fool out of myself, it’s nothing new.“ Lando pulls a wry face. “I already do it on stream most days.”

Daniel laughs. Thanks to Covid still being a _thing_ , both he and Lando are wearing masks. But Daniel’s laughter reaches his eyes, which crinkle up and make it clear that he’s really amused. His amusement is contagious, and Lando can’t help but start smiling a little. “

“Oh right,” says Daniel. “You stream regularly, yeah? How’s that going?”

“Haven’t really streamed in a while, but I’ll probably get back to it after the McLaren launch,” replies Lando.

A thought occurs to Lando and he glances at Daniel, feeling a little shy and awkward. Because while Daniel’s super friendly, he’s also much older than Lando and _definitely_ much cooler than Lando. The feeling takes Lando back to primary school, really. The times that he looked around the playground and wondered whether the schoolmate who looked like he’d be fun to talk to… wanted to talk to him.

“If you want to stream with me sometime, just let me know,” says Lando, a little hesitantly. 

Daniel looks thoughtful. “Possibly. Might need some help to set up my camera and get started on Twitch, though,” he says, ruefully. “I like my tech as much as anyone else, but I’ve seen Max’s set-up. It looks _so_ complicated. I’ll probably make a mess out of it.”

“I can help. No problem.” This, at least, Lando can do. “I helped George and Alex set up their stuff from scratch during lockdown last year. It’s doable, even without me being there in person.“

“Cheers, mate.” Daniel grins and extends his fist towards Lando. “Appreciate it.”

Lando grins back, relieved that Daniel seems to have accepted his tentative overture of friendship. He then reaches out to fist-bump Daniel.

They walk in silence after that, and Lando’s thoughts start wandering in no particular direction.

Suddenly, Lando remembers the time that Carlos called him, right as he was about to compete on iRacing. It turned out that Carlos had just set up his simulator and wanted some setups for iRacing. The guys who were helping Carlos set up his simulator had worked with Lando before, and they ended up calling him for advice.

And during that call... didn’t Carlos say something like “come home, Lando?”

English is Lando’s first language, but it is Carlos’... second language? Lando’s not sure. He still doesn’t know how many languages Carlos speaks.

Since Carlos isn’t a native English speaker, he occasionally says things that might have a slightly different meaning to a native English speaker, even when he doesn’t mean to. So of course, Lando knows that Carlos doesn’t really mean ’come home’ as the sort of ’come home’ that people say to each other when they’re living together.

Because Carlos and Lando weren’t living together. Even if they frequently crashed each other’s hotel rooms during race weekends.

Still, it was nice to know that Carlos wanted Lando to go over to his home.

So Lando promised to go over to Carlos’ home after his race. And after he helped Carlos set up his simulator, they took it for a few test runs before Carlos kept his promise and treated Lando to Lando’s absolute favourite pizza. 

Lando grins as he remembers himself and Carlos happily bantering about random stuff over delicious delicious pizza. Except… fuck. Carlos isn’t within driving distance of Lando anymore, is he? Because Carlos moved to Italy right after the season ended last year. And Lando is still… here. In England.

Lando pulls a face. He’s back to feeling melancholy about Carlos leaving for Ferrari.

  


* * *

  


“Ah. We’re here.” 

Daniel’s voice is a welcome interruption to Lando’s increasingly melancholy thoughts, and he watches as Daniel raises his hand to knock on the door. 

Moments later, they’re greeted by a friendly guy who welcomes them in. The guy introduces them to the Melody Makers team, and everyone gets to work. While everything is completely new to Lando, it’s also a really cool experience.

Daniel and Lando listen to some beats that the team has prepared for them, give their opinions on the beats, do some vocal warmups, and attempt to rap some lyrics.

Lando already knows that he can’t rap for shit, but he tries. So, as he bounces up and down on his toes to distract himself from his nervousness, he tries to rap the lyrics and get some sort of beat going. 

It goes without saying that Daniel’s rapping and sense of rhythm is _way_ better.

They record quite a bit of footage. Different lyrics, different beats, different tempo, that sort of thing.

The recording process allows both Lando and Daniel to see, in real time, how the professional musicians can tweak existing music so quickly and masterfully. It’s _mesmerising_.

And then, they’re done with the song recording part and are given a tour of the recording studio. After the tour, Lando can’t resist asking permission to try out the drums. 

He gets permission.

Lando sits down and stares blankly at the array of intimidating-looking drums. But Melody Makers’ drummer teaches him how to hold the drumsticks, teaches him a very basic drum beat, and guides Lando for a while before letting him loose.

And so Lando plays his first drum beats without assistance. It takes several tries, but he gets a slow, semi-decent rhythm going.

As long as he keeps both his hands on the same rhythm, he can just about manage. The moment he tries to do something different with either of his hands, though, it all falls apart. His hands only seem to be capable of functioning in lockstep.

Yet, Daniel and the entire Melody Makers team are cheering him on as though he’s just performed a sick solo.

And honestly? Despite how much he’s struggling with the drums, Lando’s _hooked_.

“I need to get some drums at home,” he declares.

He starts playing the same beat again, but tries to go just a little faster. Plenty of mistakes, but still. He’s getting better on the drums, which isn’t too bad for a first-time drummer.

He would love to go on forever but unfortunately, they’re on a time limit. So when the professional drummer motions for him to stop drumming, Lando does so.

After that, he watches as Daniel also tries out the drums and head-bangs a little. Then, they take turns to play an electric guitar.

The session ends with them jamming with the Melody Makers team. Daniel joyfully plays the tambourine as Lando tries to correctly play a repeating sequence of chords on an electric guitar. Meanwhile, the professional musicians play other instruments while simultaneously adjusting their music to cover up all of Daniel and Lando’s mistakes.

It’s rather heart-warming.

  


* * *

  


These days, Lando tries not to do too many non-racing things on impulse. It’s mostly because in the past, doing such things impulse has led to complete and utter chaos. But three days later, he’s still obsessed with all the fun that he had playing the drums.

Lando knows that he’s absolute rubbish at it, of course. But he can always get better, can’t he? Plus, he’s got more than enough money for professional lessons. But if he wants to get better at the drums, he’s gotta get a drum kit. And find room for it in his house.

Well. At least the ‘finding room’ part isn’t a problem.

Lando lives alone in a fairly large house with a garden. Despite that, he only spends time in a small part of his house. His bedroom, his gaming room, and his bathroom. And occasionally, Lando makes the occasional foray into his kitchen to get himself something to eat.

Having said that, he’s perfectly capable of living by himself, thanks very much, despite what Max Fewtrell says.

Although perhaps Lando shouldn’t keep burning his burger buns. Or if he does, at least he shouldn’t do it while he’s streaming on Twitch.

Lando pulls a face. It’s just as well that these days, his food comes pre-packaged and delivered to his doorstep. Pre-season workouts and carefully managed diets and all that.

Some days, Lando has no idea how he’d function as a regular 20-year-old who’s probably doing some university degree. If Netflix and Reddit are anything to go by, he’d probably be living off Tesco meal deals, pizza, and discount sandwiches. Because Lando can’t cook to save his life.

Oh. And Jaffa cakes. Because who doesn’t like Jaffa cakes?

Heathens, that’s who.

It’s just as well that Lando’s a racing driver with enough money to hire a performance coach who also takes care of his diet. These days, almost everyone in motorsport has a performance coach. Even before a driver breaks into Formula 1. So it’s not like Lando’s weird for having a performance coach.

He’s worked with Jon, his performance coach, for years, and they get along well. And well, if Lando’s entirely honest with himself, he probably wouldn’t eat half the food he’s supposed to if it wasn’t for Jon’s hawkish monitoring.

Especially his vegetables.

> **2019 rookies**  
>  Lando: I’m this close to getting a drum kit  
>  Lando: Full drum kit  
>  Lando: Professional quality  
>  George: GET IT  
>  George: Lando Norris, rockstar drummer  
>  George: Or is it Lando Norris, little drummer boy?  
>  George: 😂😂😂  
>  Alex: 👀  
>  Alex: What gave you the idea?  
>  Alex: Sounds fun  
>  Alex: But Lando, please think of your neighbours  
>  Alex: No drumming after 11 at night or something  
>  Alex: You could look up noise ordinances in your area  
>  George: ...  
>  George: Noise ordinances  
>  George: Really  
>  George: Alex, are you 24 or 42??? 

Lando glares at the chat. He can’t decide what’s worse — George teasing him about his height and age _yet again_ , or Alex behaving like a particularly worried parent.

> **2019 rookies**  
>  Lando: I’m gonna be a rockstar drummer, George, just you wait  
>  Lando: Also  
>  Lando: Noise ordinances  
>  Lando: I’m on George’s side for this, Alex  
>  Lando: Or should I call you dad instead of Alex?  
>  Lando: 😂 

Despite the mutual roasting, George and Alex’s replies convince Lando to go ahead with his grand plan.

So Lando hops online and searches up “best drum kits 2021.” Since it’s still February, he also searches up “best drum kits 2020.” Just to be safe. He ends up on the Instagram of a brand called Pearl Drums. The brand’s been recommended on multiple reputable-looking music websites. They’ve got an official Instagram, and their profile showcases various professional musicians using their drum kits.

After clicking through their Instagram story highlights, scrolling through their feed, and mentally drooling _just a little_ at the sleek and cool-looking drum kits, Lando ends up on their website.

Some time later, Lando’s picked out what he’s convinced is _the_ coolest-looking drum kit.

Hey. The brand itself came recommended, so who cares about the specific model? Everything from a recommended brand should be decent enough, right? At any rate, the kit that Lando picked out fits both his criteria. 

One, it’s a professional-quality drum kit. Because if Lando’s gonna do something, he’s gonna do it properly. 

Two, the drum kit looks fucking _sick_. Since there were some colour options, Lando went for silver and gold chrome. Because chrome finishes are _shiny_ , and Lando is not-so-secretly a magpie.

He even pays for expedited delivery, because he’s Lando Norris and he’s extra by default. When he likes something, he goes for it. Hard.

> **2019 rookies**  
>  Lando: Bought it!  
>  Lando: I know both of you are gonna say receipts or it didn’t happen, so here's a screenshot of my actual receipt  
>  [Lando Norris sent a photo]  
>  Lando: When I become an F1 champion and a rockstar drummer, both of you can point to this message and say that you were here when it all began  
>  Lando: Feel honoured 

With those witty words, Lando puts down his phone and goes off to do Actual Formula 1 Driver Things.

Like… Sleep. 

Sleep, because Lando’s sleeping schedule has gone absolutely haywire during the off-season and Jon, Lando’s performance coach, is _desperately_ trying to rectify this.

Which means that, against his will, Lando’s got a horribly punishing workout tomorrow at 9am sharp, and it’s already…

2.13am.

Fuck! How’s it already so late?

Lando scrambles off to shower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **References**  
>  **McLaren’s YouTube**  
>  \- Lando touching raw fish is in McLaren Unboxed. Sep 2020.  
> \- Daniel and Lando at Melody Makers is in Feb 2021. The quote “I need to get some drums at home.” comes from that video  
> \- Lando and Jaffa cakes is in Snack Wars. June 2019.  
> \- Carlos and Lando going indoor skydiving. July 2019.  
>  **Other References**  
>  \- Carlos and his racing simulator. The actual quote is “Lando. You need to come home.” Video including the full phone call is on YouTube. Dec 2019.  
> \- Lando's [drum kit](https://whatdidwejustdo.tumblr.com/post/644020179482853376).  
> \- Little drummer boy is a popular Christmas song
> 
>  **Food**  
>  \- Lando did burn his burger buns while on stream. Clip is on Youtube. Aug 2020.  
> \- Max Fewtrell [asking how Lando is allowed to live alone](https://anniee.tumblr.com/post/634225091695280128/yeah-max-i-wonder-how-hes-allowed-to-live-alone).  
> \- In a recent [interview](https://whatdidwejustdo.tumblr.com/post/64537944191110348), Pierre Gasly said that a company makes all his pre-season meals. Since Pierre and Lando are both F1 drivers, it’s reasonable to assume that Lando might have a similar thing going.  
> \- Tesco meal deals are a Thing in England.
> 
> Not sure how part of this fic accidentally became ‘Lando thinks back on iconic Carlos-Lando times.’ I definitely don’t know many of the Carlos-Lando moments out there so if there’s a particular moment you like, let me know. I might include it in later chapters.
> 
> Thanks for reading. As always, it makes me so happy to hear from you. I hope you’re enjoying the first day of 2021 testing as much as I am!

**Author's Note:**

>  **Title**  
>  From Fall Out Boy’s ”Sugar we’re goin down” because...  
> \- Liking Instagram posts involves clicking the ‘heart’ icon, so it’s kind of like ‘dropping a heart’  
> \- ‘Break a name’ because the current discussion over what to call the Carlos-Charles partnership amuses me
> 
> I'm really nervous posting this because it’s my first time writing this pairing. Thank you so much for reading, and I’d love to hear what you think because comments and kudos really encourage me to keep writing. Alternatively, come talk to me at whatdidwejustdo on Tumblr.


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